Harriet Tubman was born into slavery as Araminta Ross in Maryland around 1820. She married John Tubman a free black man in 1844 and took his last name. On September 17, 1849, Harriet, escaped their Maryland plantation but would later return as a conductor to lead many slaves to their freedom by helping them escape on the Underground Railroad.

Between 1859 and 1860, some estimate that Tubman made 19 trips from the south to the north and is believed to have personally led over 300 slaves to their freedom and instructed hundreds of others on how to escape on their own.

In-spite of Harriet’s personal challenges that included a failed marriage to Tubman and sudden episodes of losing consciousness due to a head injury she suffered as a child, Harriet bravely fought against slavery. As an escaped slave herself she was constantly aware of how precarious her own freedom was and with the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850 she was forced to venture north into Canada, settling in St. Catharines, Ont.

In this movie the character of Harriet Tubman is played by Ruby Dee. An American actress and legend than Hollyood ever gave her credit for.

Harriet Tubman died in 1913 to pneumonia. She is believed during her time as an undeground railroad conductor to have claimed “I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger.”